Central Middlesex Hospital

Acton Lane, Park Royal, NW10 7NS

Medical dates:

Medical character:

1903 - current

Acute, maternity

In 1897 the Willesden Board of Guardians acquired a 64 acre
site in Acton Lane from the Twyford Abbey estate. They built a
new workhouse and infirmary, which opened in 1903, providing
accommodation for 400 people, including 150 sick. By 1907 only
sick paupers were admitted to both buildings, which were now known as
the Willesden Workhouse Infirmary.

The buildings were extended in 1908, 1911 and 1914, when the Infirmary
was renamed the Willesden Institution.

In 1921, it became known as the Park Royal Hospital.

In 1930 the Middlesex County Council took over its administrative
control and it was renamed yet again in 1931, becoming the Central
Middlesex County Hospital, with 689 beds. With even more
extensions it had 890 beds by 1939.

During WW2 the Hospital was badly damaged by bombs.

When the Hospital joined the NHS in 1948, it was grouped together with
the Neasden, Kingsbury
and Willesden General Hospitals
under the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.

In 1951 the Hospital had 842 beds.

In 1966 a further building was added for the maternity unit, which had
28 beds but, overall, the number of beds had been reduced to 736,
mainly for acute admissions.

In 1997 construction work began on a new Hospital building - the
Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre (ACaD) - what we used to
call the Out-Patients Department - which opened in 1999. Clinical
services transferred from the old buildings to the new, and the second
phase of rebuilding began in 2003. The in-patients wing - the
Brent Emergency Care and Diagnostic Centre (BECaD) - opened in 2006,
with 214 beds.

Present status
(November 2008)

A PFI deal costing more than £80m has enabled
the Hospital to be rebuilt behind the original buildings.

The future of the Brent
Birth Centre, built in 2004, is already under threat of closure
because of a lack of demand for the service.

Most of the old buildings have been demolished (the Out-Patients
Department was the first to go) but the Old Refectory remains.
The original site is now the foreground to the new
buildings and contains a bus station. Some of the material
from the demolition was used in the foundations for the new car park
and roads.

It had been hoped to preserve the facade of the clock tower but this
proved impossible. An old cupola and a flagpole are preserved on
the wasteland at the back of the site. Two turrets, the Acton
Lane gates, the clock and the foundation stones were saved from
demolition. Some of these artefacts are now displayed in the new
Hospital grounds.

The remainder of the site will be developed by the Network Housing Group
for key worker housing and businesses.

The Old Refectory is now used as offices for
various disability groups and the North West London Trust.